The Henry Allen Moe Prize, awarded annually by Fenimore Art Museum, recognizes excellence in exhibitions and collections-based publishing.

The museum is the recipient of an endowment from Mrs. Henry Allen Moe in memory of her husband, Henry Allen Moe, scholar and humanist. Income from the endowment is used for substantial cash prizes to foster and recognize scholarship in art history and decorative arts studies in the form of published catalogues of exhibits and collections.

Entries for each year’s prize must have been published the previous year. Entries must be submitted in four copies, accompanied by a letter of transmittal stating intent to enter the contest, and received on or before February 15* of each year. Only catalogues treating collections located or exhibited in New York State qualify.

Selection will be by a committee of scholars and museum administrators. A successful entry should add new information to what is known about the subject, and may completely document an important exhibition.  Thank you to all of the participants who submitted their catalogues in this year’s Henry Allen Moe Prize competition.

Address entries to:

The Henry Allen Moe Prize Committee
Fenimore Art Museum
PO Box 800, 5798 State Hwy 80
Cooperstown, NY 13326

Phone: 607.547.2586
Email: publications@fenimoreart.org 
*The 2021 Moe Prize has been postponed to 2022. All 2021 and 2022 eligible catalogues will be considered for the 2022 prize. The 2022 deadline for submissions is February 15, 2022.

PAST PRIZE WINNERS

2010         Linda S. Ferber, The Hudson River School: Nature and the American Vision

2012          Frances F. Bretter, Matthew A. Thurlow, Michael K. Brown, Peter Kenny, Duncan Phyfe: Master Cabinetmaker in New York

2013          Roberta J.M. Olson, Audubon’s Aviary: The Original Watercolors for The Birds of America

2014          Kimberly Orcutt and Marilyn Satin Kushner, The Armory Show at 100: Modernism and Revolution

2015          Emily Braun and Rebecca Rabinow, Cubsim: The Leonard A. Lauder Collection

2016          James Layton and David Pierce, The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915-1935

2017          Esther da Costa Meyer, Pierre Chareau: Modern Architecture and Design

2018          Lines of Inquiry: Learning from Rembrandt’s Etchings, Andrew C. Weislogel, The Seymour R. Askin, Jr. ’47 Curator, Earlier European and American Art, Cornell Andaleeb Badiee Banta, Curator of European and American Art

2019          Wiener Werkstätte 1903-1932, Janis Staggs and Christian Witt-Dörring, Neue Galerie

2020          (Two Winners) Edith Halpert:  The Downtown Gallery and the Rise of American Art, Rebecca Shaykin (The Jewish Museum) and Black Refractions: The Studio Museum in Harlem, Connie H. Choi (The Studio Museum in Harlem in partnership with The American Federation of Arts)